Iran’s death toll from the Saudi hajj disaster has nearly doubled to 464 pilgrims killed, state media reported today - a development that is likely to further strain ties between the Middle East arch-rivals. It was not immediately clear how the rise in the Islamic Republic’s death toll, announced on the website of Iranian state television, would...

It is a matter of immense prestige for the Saudi royal family that it hosts the Hajj. Saudi kings have proudly adopted the title of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. But the honour carries a heavy responsibility too. The Saudis feel they have lived up to this by spending billions on expanding Mecca and Medina and improving the transport and...

As the body count from the horrific Hajj stampede reached 719, the backlash started. Within hours, Saudi Arabia's regional rival Iran had laid the blame for the deaths squarely on the heads of the House of Saud. Saudi officials, by contrast, claimed "some pilgrims who didn't follow the guidelines issued" may have been responsible for the sudden...

MINA, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- A horrific stampede killed at least 717 pilgrims and injured hundreds more Thursday on the outskirts of the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, the deadliest tragedy to strike the annual hajj pilgrimage in more than two decades. At least 863 pilgrims were injured in the crush, said the Saudi civil defense directorate,...

Saudi Arabia has deployed 100,000 security personnel to oversee the annual Islamic hajj pilgrimage that begins on Tuesday, the Interior Ministry spokesman said, underscoring both the massive arrangements needed to secure one of the largest pilgrimages in the world and the multitude of threats the hajj faces. “We always concentrate on hajj...

An airstrike on a displaced persons camp in Yemen has left at least 29 people dead and dozens wounded, including women and children, according to aid groups working in the area. Al Mazraq camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) in the Hajj governorate, near the border town of Haradh in western Yemen, houses around 5,000 people who have fled...

Mecca, Saudi Arabia • Saudi Arabia sought to assure the public that the kingdom was safe and free of health scares as an estimated 2 million Muslims streamed into a sprawling tent city near Mecca on Thursday for the start of the annual Islamic hajj pilgrimage. Earlier this year, Saudi authorities banned people from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea...

Article by WN.com Correspondent DallasDarling. Is Islam at a Crossroads? No. But like most other faiths and worldviews or secularized ideologies around the globe, it is experiencing significant internal and external transformations. And like the rest of those living in the world and who adhere to various principles that provides meaning and...

MECCA: Some two million pilgrims poured out of the Muslim holy city of Mecca on Sunday to begin the annual hajj, their numbers reduced on fears of the deadly MERS virus. SaudiHealth MinisterAbdullah Al-Rabia told reporters late Saturday that authorities had so far detected no cases among the pilgrims of the virus which has killed 60...

October 11: Hundreds of thousands of Muslims have poured into the holy city of Makkah for the annual hajj pilgrimage as Saudi Arabia issued a stern warning against politicising the world's largest annual gathering. People dressed in ihram, a two-piece seamless garment of white cloth, filled the area around the Grand Mosque, Islam's holiest place of...

By ANDREW MCKIE The British Museum was, from its creation by an act of Parliament in 1753, explicitly intended to be a museum of the whole world, bringing the finest arts and crafts from different cultures together in Bloomsbury, in central London. So its director, Neil MacGregor, is keen to remind me at the opening of its latest exhibition. In an...